[Herts] Closed Windows.

[David Precious]

Hi Andrew,

I know exactly what you mean about the frustrations with Windows - I 
gave up using Windows long ago, and have been a much happier computer 
user ever since.


Andrew Porter wrote:
> Having resolved the Microsoft problems, I turned my attention to SuSE 
> Linux 10.0, as installed by Q-Tek. Sadly, this does not work, as Q-Tek 
> forgot to give me the password needed by SuSE Linux 10.0 to  install the 
> printer software, and access the Internet. In other words, I cannot down 
> load the printer software through SuSE Linux, and therefore I cannot 
> install the printer software?

I'm guessing you mean the root password (the password to the "root" 
account on the system, which, as far as user accounts go, is considered 
to be God, with full rights to do anything - mostly a parallel to the 
"administrator" account on Windows systems).

There are several ways to reset this password.  If you plan to attend 
Herts LUG meetings in future, bring your machine along and we can sort 
it out for you.  (Next meeting is this Weds coming up).

If the bootloader installed by Q-Tek (probably "grub", maybe "lilo") 
gives the option to add parameters before booting, you can add the 
following:

init=/bin/bash

On most Linux systems, that will boot you straight to a root-level shell 
with no password required; you can then type 'passwd' to reset the 
password to one of your choosing.




> Question: My car provides my with a manual on how to use all the 
> controls, options, etc., in the car. Why does software come without any 
> instructions, and comments such as, 'contact your PC manufacturer for 
> product support.' 

You paid a lot of money for your car, so your car manufacturer can 
afford to pay people money to write up a manual.

In contrast, open source software like Linux tends to be free, so nobody 
has been paid to make up a nice glossy manual for you; however, lots of 
people have invested time and effort for free to produce documentation 
which you can find on the web with a quick Google.

In addition, your car has a set list of features, and the hardware and 
available features are identical for every car (of that particular model 
+ spec) that rolls off the line.  In contrast, the features available 
from a computer depend on the software that's installed on it (and 
perhaps on the hardware available, too).

Google is your best starting point to find any documentation you need, 
but The Linux Documentation Project at http://www.tldp.org/ may also be 
useful, they have a wide range of helpful documentation there.


> Does this mean that Q-Tek will come to my home, at 
> their cost, to show me how to use Microsoft Vista and SuSE Linux?

Very unlikely I imagine.  They might come to your home at /your/ cost 
maybe :)

Cheers

Dave P